Acta Oeconomica
Volume/Issue:
Volume 66: Issue s1
The future of the European Union: Towards a functional federalism
Author:
Marek Dabrowski Bruegel, Brussels
Higher School of Economics, Moscow
CASE — Center for Social and Economic Research, Warsaw. E-mail: marek.dabrowski@case-research.eu

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Pages:
21–48
Online Publication Date:
Dec 2016
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2016
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/032.2016.66.s1.2
Keywords:
European integration,; European Union; theory of fiscal federalism; subsidiarity principle; EU budget; democratic legitimacy; F15; F55; H77
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The series of adverse shocks of both economic and political character that Europe has suffered since 2008, the last of them coming from the Brexit referendum, revealed numerous institutional gaps and asymmetries in the EU integration architecture. They originate from the voluntary nature of the EU project and the necessity to obtain unanimous approval of all member states to take new integration steps. To increase the resilience of the EU project against current and future shocks, its major institutional gaps and asymmetries should be addressed as quickly as possible. In this paper, we use the theory of fiscal federalism and subsidiarity principle to set the agenda of the EU reform. This includes the identification of areas such as completing the EMU and Schengen projects, foreign, security, and defence policies, environmental and climate change policies where further integration can offer substantial returns to scale and better provisions of global and pan-European public goods. On the other hand, there are also areas such as agriculture policy, products, services and labour standards, and fiscal surveillance rules, where deregulation in favour of market forces could ease business environment and make EU regulations less bureaucratic. Developing integration beyond the traditional economic sphere will also have an impact on the size of the EU budget, balance of power between the EU governing bodies (a bigger role of the European Parliament) and the democratic legitimacy of the EU project.

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Cover Acta Oeconomica
Acta Oeconomica Periodical of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Print ISSN:
0001-6373
Online ISSN:
1588-2659

Senior editors

Editors-in-Chief: István P. Székely, Dóra Győrffy

Editor(s): Judit Ványai

Associate Editors

  • Péter Benczúr, Joint Joint Research Center, European Commission
  • Dóra Benedek, International Monetary Fund
  • Balázs Égert, OECD
  • Dániel Prinz, World Bank
  • Rok Spruk, University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia

Editorial Board

  • Anders Åslund, Georgetown University and Advisory Council of CASE, USA
  • István Benczes, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary 
  • Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
  • Fabrizio Coricelli, University of Siena, Italy
  • László Csaba, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary and Central European University, Austria
  • Beáta Farkas, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged, Hungary
  • Péter Halmai, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and National University of Public Service, Hungary
  • Martin Kahanec, Central European University, Austria
  • Michael Landesmann, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), Austria
  • Péter Mihályi, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
  • Debora Revoltella, European Investment Bank

Corvinus University of Budapest
Department of Economics
Fővám tér 8 Budapest, H-1093, Hungary
E-mail: vanyai.judit@krtk.hu  

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Acta Oeconomica
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 1966
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 4
Founder Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
Founder's
Address		 H-1051 Budapest, Hungary, Széchenyi István tér 9.
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ISSN 0001-6373 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2659 (Online)

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